On a beautiful spring day in May of 2018, Bishop Michal Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, stood in Window Chapel and preached a sermon at a wedding. Of course, the was no ordinary wedding for it was attended by the Queen of England and over a billion people watching on television around the world. Bishop Curry was invited by Prince Harry and Megan Markle to preach at their wedding, and boy did he preach.
I will admit that before that sermon, I had read or heard very little about Bishop Curry, but since that sermon, I have followed him with great intensity. The Bishop and I preach the same message, and that message is love.
In Bishop Curry’s wedding sermon, he reminded those listening that the reason they were all there was because two people fell in love. Love was the prime mover of all the events of that day. Sure, it was an affair of state with all the grandeur of a Royal Wedding, but it was love that set all of that in motion.
Since listening to that sermon, I have followed Bishop Curry and what he calls “The Way of Love.” Bishop Curry often says, “The way of Jesus is the Way of Love. And the Way of Love can change the world.” In his wedding sermon, he quoted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, “We must discover the power of love, … the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, … we will make of this old world a new world, for love is the only way.”
I believe that love is what is central to the life and practice of a Christian. Jesus taught us that love of God and love of neighbor was the summation of all the law, and he left us with a new commandment that we are to love one another as God has loved us unconditionally and without questioning whether or not that love is warranted.
The Gospel teaches that there is power in love, there is a power to transform our lives and to transform the world. “There’s power in love. There’s power in love to help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There’s power in love to show us the way to live.” (The Power of Love, pg. 8)
If this unconditional love that Jesus taught is the summation of all of the law and the Prophets, then we, the followers of Jesus, have no other choice than to practice this radical love in our own lives.
